[The place of conservative surgery in the complex oncologic treatment of breast cancer].

For a long time, breast-conserving surgery has been a subject of great interest and debate. Many researchers have tried to find strict criteria in selecting the patients who can benefit from such a treatment but this remains a goal to achieve in the future. In our surgical department, from 1984 to 2000, 1152 patients were diagnosed with breast cancer. 741 patients (64.1%) had advanced breast cancer and 411 patients (35.6%) were diagnosed in I and II stages. From the patients with early breast cancer only 57 (14.1%) had benefited of conservative surgery combined with adjuvant radiotherapy and chemotherapy. All patients received hormonotherapy. The surgical treatment consisted in a broad sectorectomy and axillary lymphadenectomy in all cases. We present the criteria for selecting patients in our study. The patients were followed for 2-5 years, with a mean period of 48 months and there were no significant differences between the trial with mamectomy and that with conservative surgery. There is presented a brief review of the literature in this field. Our conclusion is that the conservative surgery for breast cancer is a good method, which can be applied for selected patients and with a good follow-up.